The ability to print electronic circuits provides several advantages over traditional manufacturing processes. Typically, these processes add materials to form devices such as thin film transistors (TFT). The processes are referred to as additive printing process. The advantages include lower cost, faster production, and reduced times between design and manufacturing. However, these devices tend to have limited currents and the ratio between the ON and OFF currents can be relatively low.
In some circuits, a need may arise for the voltage at a circuit node to have a voltage higher than a supply voltage. One possible solution involves a voltage pump or voltage multiplier that delivers an increased voltage over an extended period of time. For some circuits, delivering high voltage for a limited duration may be sufficient and result in increased efficiency and reduced device performance requirements. A pulsed voltage multiplier can meet these requirements.
In the printed electronics area, traditional voltage pumps are challenging to implement Because of low thin film transistor (TFT) ON/OFF ratios and currents, limited diode current, and capacitor leakage. Other circuit designs are needed to circumvent these issues. Also, with printed electronics, reducing the number of types of components has advantages. This reduces the number of different ink formulations, number of print heads, number of print passes, etc. In turn, this reduces the overall production costs and complexity and increases the speed of production. In general, different voltage multiplier architectures are needed.